The only north facing beach in South Australia!

This weekend I went to Black Point, a secluded beach area with what the Australians call "shacks". Now, when I heard shack, I was pretty skeptical. I mean, shack kind of sounds like a lean-to-ish structure. But these shacks are pretty cool, unique beach houses. Some of them are quite old, and in that respect are like shacks. But some of these little houses are huge and brand new!


Anyway, Black Point is the only north facing beach in South Australia, which I guess is good because the sun goes across the sky towards the north and you get lots and lots of sun!! We spent the weekend hanging out on the beach, playing back yard cricket and cards, eating delicious food, and camping!!!



We also tried to go crabbing, but for some reason all the crabs had left the Billy Goat Flat the night before, migrating south (we saw them shuffling down the shallow beach area earlier). So only one crab!! But it was super fun and it was a beautiful weekend!!!

The British are weird.

It appears that the sword is mightier than the pen. Good to know his injuries are not life-threatening.

The Parade that never happened.

I was supposed to perform as a flag twirler in the Adelaide Fringe Parade this Friday. Unfortunately, they canceled it due to rain, but not until we had all been standing in the rain for over half an hour. Good times!!

That's a mute point.

Take a look at this video. There are so many issue here - mute points, firing by email, get off the tacos!

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Garden of Unearthly Delights!

The Garden opened this weekend as a precursor to the Adelaide Fringe Festival, one of the biggest art/artist events of the world! The Garden consists of all sorts of fun things - food stalls, fair rides, vendors, performance stages, "freak" shows, etc. etc. etc.

We went to the Garden tonight and had some food, relaxed in the park, took our hand at a few of the fair games, and won!!!

Adelaide

So Adelaide is the capital of South Australia. It's probably the least known of all the capital cities, so I've put a map here below to show you where it is.


It's quite nice here - dry heat, right next to the beach, the hills not far away for hiking and camping. And of course there's the wine country, the Barossa Valley, McClaren Vale, etc. Jacobs Creek wine is from this area if you're shopping at home!!

Adelaide city is pretty flat, which makes walking and biking quite pleasant. The central business district is open and spacious and has Rundle Mall - a walking only area full of shops. Center (centre) city is surrounded by parklands for rugby, soccer, cricket, racing. And then the suburbs start.

Public transportation in Adelaide is clean and efficient; BUT, if you want to get anywhere after 5pm, your options are limited. It seems that buses don't really run after 4:15pm. And they are really expensive. An adult ticket costs $4.60 (now the US dollar and the Australian dollar are worth the same). $4.60!!!!! A ten trip pass costs $30.00. And you can't really get anywhere after 5pm!!! I never thought I would say this, but I miss SEPTA!!!

Cricket!

So I've become a new fan of cricket, that confusing game strangely named after an insect. I've gotten into the Australia v. England one day internationals, watched the national final in Adelaide between South Australia and New South Wales, and watched my friends' son's under-11 cricket match this weekend.

Basically, it's kind of like baseball but not really. The pitchers are called bowlers, strikes are wickets, points are runs (similar to baseball), and each team gets to bat, but there are less innings. The game is played on an oval rather than a field.


The bowler bowls an over, which is 6 balls, and then they switch bowlers. Depending on the type of game, the number of overs changes. The one day internationals are 50 overs each side. Batters are out when they hit a ball and the fielders catch it in the air, or they miss the hit and the ball knocks the little pieces of wood on top of the wicket off. Then a new batter comes in and they do that until all the overs are bowled or all the players are out.


The object of the game - to score more runs than the other team. The "run chase" is pretty much the most exciting part of it - when the team to bat second (or last) has to beat the other teams runs score to win.

(This is me trying my hand at bowling...)

It's surprising out addictive this game is. I'm becoming obsessed and I want to play!

Backyard critters

I'm in Adelaide where the temperatures reach 100+ F quite frequently. The vegetation here is very different from home - not really any deciduous trees, no groves of maples with leaves that change color; BUT there's lots of eucalyptus. And where there's eucalyptus, there's koala!

So we've been watching this koala come out of the tall eucalyptus into the lower, cooler tree because it's been so hot. Today, we saw it run across the yard!!

500th post!

This is my 500th post!

Return to Oz!!

Well I've left Hong Kong and made my way back to Adelaide, Australia, where I studied in college. Fortunately, Australia is nothing like Oz in the movie Return to Oz. It's full on summer here, so it's sunny and hot!! And of course, the beach is nearby! :) It's great to be back!!!